68 



FAM. III. LEMANE^E. 



3. LEMANIA Bory. 



Char. Frond attached, coriaceous, ramose, and cellular. Outer 

 cells small, polygonal, and firmly adherent; interior 

 larger, more lax, sphcerical, and empty. Sporules mo- 

 niliform, fasciculate, naked, arising from the inner vesicles, 

 and occupying the interior of the frond. 



Lemania Bory, in Annales du Museum, vol. xii., also in 

 Diet, class, ix. 274. ; Agardh, in Act. Holm., 1814, t. 1. 

 species 1, 2. Nodularia Link, in Schrad. Jour., 1809, 

 p. 9. ; Lyngb. t. 29. Gongycladon Link, in Hort. 

 Physic. 6. Trichogonus Palis, in Jour. Bot., 1808, 

 p. 123. (excel, sp.) Vertebraria Rouss, in Desv. Jour. 

 Bot. i. 143. Apona Adans. 13. Polysperma sp. Vauch. 

 t. 1. f. 3., 1. 10. f. 1, 2. Conf. sp. Dillw. t. 29. ; E. B. 

 1763. 



The genus Lemania, like some other genera of freshwater 

 Alga, would appear to stand .almost alone, exhibiting no 

 very exact relation with any other division of this tribe, and 

 the only plant to which it bears any definite resemblance 

 appears to be the Enteromorpha intestinalis, and this only in 

 its ramose habit, and in the cellular structure of the frond, 

 the reproduction in Lemania, though simple, being wholly 

 different from that of Enteromorpha. 



Vaucher, in his description of his genus, Polysperma } of 

 which Conf.fiumatilis formed the type, has not erred far from 

 the truth, and his generic name might, with propriety, 

 have been retained ; the chief mistake which he committed, 

 was in associating with Conf. fiuviatilis the Conferva glo- 

 merata, a plant in every way dissimilar to the former. 



The branches of the fronds of the Lemanice, in their young 

 state, are cylindrical; soon, however, they are seen to be- 

 come dilated at regular intervals. If one of these dilatations 



